Jeffrey HuangJeffrey Huang is the Director of the Institute of Architecture at EPFL (starting May 1, 2020), that comprises 25 laboratories and groups. He is also the Head of the Media x Design Laboratory and a Full Professor in Architecture and Computer Science, at the Faculty of Computer and Communication Sciences (IC), and at the Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC). He holds a DiplArch from ETH Zurich, and Masters and Doctoral Degrees from Harvard University, where he was awarded the Gerald McCue medal for academic excellence. He started his academic career as a researcher at MIT’s Sloan School of Management (Center for Coordination Sciences). In 1998 he returned to Harvard as an Assistant Professor of Architecture and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2001. In 2006 he was named Full Professor at EPFL in Switzerland where he holds joint professorships at I&C and ENAC, and heads the Media x Design Lab. He was also a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s d.school, a Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield, and a Berkman Fellow and Faculty Associate at Harvard University (Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society). Professor Huang’s research examines the convergence of physical and digital architecture. His recent work investigates new artificial design paradigms (design decoding and encoding), theories of experience design, and the application of algorithmic urbanism in Chinese cities. His current teaching examines the possible role of artificial intelligence in architecture (see MxD studios). In collaboration with Muriel Waldvogel, he heads Convergeo, an award-winning, international strategic and experience design firm. From 2014-2017, while on leave from EPFL, he led the creation of a ground-breaking, new school of architecture in Singapore, as the Head of the Architecture and Sustainable Design Pillar at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), established in collaboration with MIT.
Florence Graezer BideauMaître d’enseignement et de recherche au Collège des Humanités et à la Section d'Architecture, EPFLProfesseure invitée au Département d’Architecture et de Design, Politecnico di Torino Docteure en histoire et civilisation (EHESS, Paris)Directrice du Minor in Area and Cultural Studies (MACS) entre 2012 et 2016Membre du Groupe de recherche Patrimoine, culture et villeChercheuse associée au China Room Research Group et South China-Torino Collaboration Lab, Politecnico di Torino Membre associée au Laboratoire d’anthropologie culturelle et sociale (LACS) de l’Université de LausanneMembre de la Commission de l’Ecole doctorale d’architecture et science de la ville (EDAR) de l’EPFL Florence Graezer Bideau est anthropologue, sinologue et docteur en histoire et civilisation depuis 2005. Avant de rejoindre le Centre for Area and Cultural Studies (CACS) de l’EPFL en 2010, elle a été maître assistante en anthropologie à l’Université de Lausanne où elle a enseigné dans les domaines de la théorie culturelle et de la méthodologie d’enquête de terrain. Directrice adjointe, puis Directrice du CACS entre 2012 et 2014, elle est maître d’enseignement et de recherche au sein du Collège des Humanités de l’EPFL et enseigne dans le domaine des area studies, de l’anthropologie de la Chine, des critical heritage studies et des études urbaines. Entre 2012 et 2016, elle a été directrice du Minor in Area and Cultural Studies. Depuis 2015, elle est membre de la commission de Ecole doctorale d’architecture et science de la ville (EDAR) de la Faculté de l’environnement naturel, architectural et construit (ENAC) de l’EPFL. Professeure invitée au Département d’architecture et de Design, Politecnico di Torino, Italie, depuis 2015, ses domaines d’expertise comprennent l’anthropologie de la Chine, la sociologie urbaine, les modes de sociabilité et la gouvernementalité Ses intérêts de recherche portent sur les liens entre la culture et le pouvoir (construction de la politique culturelle en Chine ; émergence des communautés de makers (makerspaces) et politique d’innovation en Chine), sur les questions patrimoniales (processus de patrimonialisation et du multiculturalisme en Malaisie et à Singapour ; mise en œuvre de la Convention de l’UNESCO pour la sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel immatériel en Suisse), ainsi que sur la fabrication de la ville (notion de paysage historique urbain dans les politiques patrimoniales à Pékin, Rome et Mexico City ; résistances informelles face à la violence de l’urbanisme à Caracas, Chennai et Guangzhou ; construction d’habitats autonomes à la suite de situations catastrophiques en Inde, au Liban et en Malaisie ; usages des espaces publics dans les nouvelles villes chinoises).
Antoine BosselutAntoine Bosselut is an assistant professor at EPFL. He leads the EPFL NLP group, which conducts research on natural language processing (NLP) systems that can model, represent, and reason about human and world knowledge.
Prior to joining EPFL, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University working in the
SNAP
and
NLP
groups and a young investigator on the
Mosaic
project at the
Allen Institute for AI
. He completed his PhD at the University of Washington.
Alessandro ChiesaAlessandro Chiesa is a faculty member in computer science. He conducts research in complexity theory, cryptography, and security, with a focus on the theoretical foundations and practical implementations of cryptographic proofs that are short and easy to verify. He is a co-author of several zkSNARK libraries, and is a co-inventor of the Zerocash protocol. He has co-founded Zcash and StarkWare Industries. He is a recipient of a Sloan Research Fellowship (2021), an Okawa Foundation Research Grant (2020), and Google Faculty Research Awards (2018 and 2017). He was included in MIT Technology Review's "35 Innovators Under 35" list in 2018.
Sylvie Tram NguyenSylvie has background experience in teaching at university and working in multi-disciplinary firms in urban design, architecture, landscape and planning. In 2014, she joined Hong Kong University in Hong Kong as an assistant lecturer in the Master of Urban Design, to teach urban design theory, best practices and local/interntional design studios. Last year, she started her PhD at EPFL as part of the Lab-U at Habitat Research Center. Under the direction of Prof. Paola Vigano, her research regards river and watercourse transformations of peri-urban territories in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. She started her career as an architectural designer for luxury homes in Los Angeles after obtaining her professional Bachelor of Architecture at Woodbury, and became an urban designer in practice after graduating from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.
Silin GaoI am a PhD student at
EPFL NLP Group
, working with Prof.
Antoine Bosselut
. I am interested in knowledge intensive natural language inference, understanding and generation, especially knowledge graph enhanced language modeling and its downstream applications such as conversational and narrative systems.
Previously, I was a research assistant in the
CoAI Group
at Tsinghua University, working with Prof.
Minlie Huang
. I also received my Bachelor's degree in
Electronic Information Science and Technology
at Tsinghua University, with my diploma thesis advisor Prof.
Zhijian Ou
.
